Time is running out — those saving lives in earthquake-hit Turkey and Syria desperately need us

Time is running out.

It’s now been a week since two massive earthquakes over 7.6 in magnitude hit southern Turkey and north-western Syria.

The death toll — now at more than 35,000 — is continuing to climb, and international aid is only just starting to trickle into the areas that need it most. 

The people of Syria have experienced it all. They’ve been bombed. They’ve been forcibly displaced. They’ve borne the brunt of a conflict that has destroyed countless lives and livelihoods. And now this.

On Friday, one of Save the Children’s partners in Syria told my colleague: “In 2013, a bomb fell into my house. My father died and was buried under the rubble…but this earthquake was even scarier."

"I can’t describe how long it lasted because of the pain, fear, anger that I felt. I saw my entire life flash in front of me and I was frozen with fear. I looked at my wife and children while the building was shaking, and I felt so helpless.”

This heart-wrenching testimony illustrates the horror that the people of Syria are experiencing today. This comes on top of the past 12 years that have been a nightmare from which the people of Syria have been unable to wake up.

Time and time again, it is the survivors of these horrors — many of whom are frontline aid workers themselves — who are the first to respond. 

Over the past week, we’ve all seen the images of survivors in Syria and Turkey pulling fellow neighbours out of the rubble.

Siblings protecting one another until help arrives. Local rescue workers clearing the rubble with their hands or any equipment they can find in the hope of finding life underneath. People using dilapidated pick-up trucks to move aid and essential supplies to families in need.

So much of the work comes down to people in the